Brown-Wilson Debate Focuses on Immigration : Politics: In their first head-on encounter, gubernatorial contenders offer sharply different views of ways to stop illegal entries.

In their first face-to-face encounter in the race to be California’s next governor, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and Democratic state Treasurer Kathleen Brown met Friday morning in a brief televised debate, discussing the causes of illegal immigration and their ideas for stopping it.

Appearing on a network television show broadcast from San Francisco, Wilson and Brown staked out distinctly different positions on what may be the hottest political topic in California.

Brown said she believes most immigrants who enter the state illegally do so in search of a job. To end that lure, she said, the state and federal governments should crack down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

Wilson said stricter enforcement of employment laws would do no good unless coupled with the elimination of public services that he has said draw immigrants across the border. Later, an aide added that the governor does not support the elimination of the two services--health and education--he singled out Friday.

Brown is expected to face Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi for the Democratic nomination in spring. Polls show she is the early favorite. It is not clear whether Wilson will face a primary election challenger.

The exchange that was broadcast Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning, America” was the first time Wilson and Brown had clashed on the same stage. For the most part, their comments mirrored lengthy statements they published this year.

Wilson and Brown agreed on two major points: that the federal government should pay for the costs of serving illegal immigrants, and that the government should create a tamper-proof identification card that would allow employers to screen out those who are not legally entitled to work in this country.

But the two differed sharply on the causes of illegal immigration.

“You have to go to the core of the problem,” Brown said. “The reason people come here is for jobs. . . . So to deal with the problem, focus in on the job site. Increase fines on employers who would give jobs to illegal immigrants, and beef up the border. And give employers a tool that they can use to see whether people are here (legally) and are eligible to work.”

Wilson said employer sanctions would not solve the problem.

“They come for the health care,” he said. “They come for education.”

He added: “I would reverse those things that the Border Patrol, the (Immigration and Naturalization Service) will tell you are putting pressure on the border. They are an incentive to illegal immigration. We encourage people. That’s the irony. Why do we even have a Border Patrol when we undercut them, we undermine them by enticing people into the country with these services?”

Brown replied that to deny emergency health care and public education to illegal immigrants would be “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

“What do kids do?” she asked. “You kick them out and they’re on the street. They get into trouble. Gangs and guns and graffiti, and I think that’s going to cost us a whole lot more.”

But Wilson’s top spokesman said the governor, despite his tough talk, supports the continued delivery of emergency health care to undocumented immigrants and has no position on whether children who are here illegally should be educated.

Dan Schnur, Wilson’s press secretary, said the governor wants the federal government to pay the entire health care bill (as does Brown) and believes that individual school districts should be able to decide whether to enroll undocumented immigrants.

Garamendi said the state could slow undocumented immigration by more strictly enforcing wage, safety and tax laws that he said Republican administrations have ignored in hopes of creating a pool of cheap labor.